Page 105 of Stealing Mercury
“It was a long journey... and we were separated for most of that.” And she was a fool. That she left unsaid. She pushed up into a sitting position and swung her legs over the side of the bed, grateful that the pain and dizziness didn’t knock her back onto the bed. “Now that we’re acquainted, there’s only one thing I need to know.” She closed her eyes and took a shallow breath before facing him again. “Are you going to help me rescue him?”
“Saber,” said Chelle. “We have to help her. She’s pregnant with his baby.”
Shock painted his face a shade lighter. “Does he know?”
“No,” said Chelle. The medic stepped over to a counter and started preparing two dosing-wands. “Drake will be here any moment to escort her into the stands and I’m supposed to make sure the match doesn’t go well for Mercury and Lo. I’m replacing the usual drugs with a performance booster, but I’m not sure what else to do.” The medic shoved the two prefilled wands into the big pockets of her white coat. “I’ll do whatever I can to help.”
“There’s no way to get any help this quickly,” said Abel.
“Oh,” said Samantha. “Rachel. She’s in trouble. They know she’s working for the resistance.”
Abel nodded. “I’ll try to warn her.”
The big Arena Dog sucked in a breath and released it in a loud huff. “Go with Drake. I’ll do what I can to help your mate get up into the stands. I can do nothing beyond that.”
“I understand. Thank you. Thank all of you.”
Saber climbed back onto the bed and Chelle returned to Samantha’s side. She held up a small instrument. “I’m going to insert a sub-dermal data-slip in your arm. It has information that will help you contact Haven.”
“Haven?”
“It’s the base of operations for the resistance. I don’t know more than that.”
“How do I know this isn’t a tracker?”
“You can trust her,” grumbled Saber. “She has freed many of our kind.”
Samantha nodded then held still and Chelle touched the instrument to the soft tissue on the inside of her arm. When she’d finished, she wrapped her arm around Samantha’s waist. “Can you stand?”
Samantha pushed her legs over the edge of the med-bed and borrowed some of Chelle’s strength to get to her feet.
“Well done. Now let’s go wait for Drake in the hall so Abel won’t have to put Saber’s restraints back on. He hates that.”
Chelle’s calm unnerved Samantha. She supposed it took guts to work as an undercover operative in a place like Roma, but her Zen-like state seemed almost inhuman.
“Samantha,” Saber’s growly voice stopped her speculation, and she looked over her shoulder to where he sat on the med-bed.
“Yes?”
“Mercury,” he said, “chose his mate well.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
RomaRexArena,Roma
EarthAllianceBeta Sector
2210.185
Drake tugged Samantha up the ramp toward the light and noise beyond the end of the tunnel. It should have been evening, but she blinked at the brightness as they emerged into what looked like mid-afternoon.
“Doesn’t it ever get dark around here?”
“Sure. But right here, not until after the games. Look.” Drake pointed at the sky.
She hadn’t expected a real answer, but her gaze followed the line of his arm up to the bright blue dome overhead. She couldn’t see the horizon. They weren’t high enough in the stands. But she could see the imitation sky began to fade to a pale purple beyond the reaches of the arena. “Owens must feel like a god around here.”
Drake dropped his arm and shoved her toward a transparent polycarbonate wall. “Owens and the other ownersaregods on Roma.”
